Nine keloid & scar treatments, evidence-graded.
Start with what you can do at home, escalate to clinical options when needed.
Each treatment page covers how it works, realistic timelines, cost, pain, accessibility, recurrence rates, and the published research behind it — so you can walk into a dermatologist visit already briefed.
Looking for a protocol, not a single treatment?
Combination therapy consistently outperforms monotherapy in the keloid literature. Stacks show you how treatments layer together — surgery plus radiation plus silicone, cryotherapy plus 5-FU, ear keloid protocols — with timing and purpose for each step.
How to read the book icon
The book icon next to each treatment shows how much high-quality research backs it — a full book for a deep RCT / meta-analysis base, a faint book for case-report-level data. It does not measure how well the treatment works in practice. A well-studied treatment can still be modest in effectiveness; a thinly-studied one can still help the right patient. Full grading method →
Start at home
Options you can begin without a clinical appointment. Silicone and pressure are first-line prevention in the literature; red light is a lower-evidence adjunct some patients add alongside.
Clinical procedures
Options that require a dermatologist, surgeon, or radiologist. These carry the strongest evidence for established keloids — usually layered with at-home adjuncts, not used alone.